First shown to crowds at this year's International CES event in January, ASUS' first enthusiast SSD, the ROG RAIDR, is heading toward a mid-May launch. A few more of its pictures and specs sheets were posted by SweClockers. As detailed earlier, the RAIDR is a compound SSD in the PCI-Express add-on card form-factor, with PCI-Express 2.0 x2 interface (supports x4, x8, and x16 slots). It uses two SandForce SF2281-driven SSD subunits striped in a hardware-abstract RAID 0 configuration. The subunits use Toshiba-made 19 nm MLC NAND flash chips, with 16 KB page size.

The ROG RAIDR supports TRIM command, NCQ and SMART, despite being a RAID 0-based SSD. It is bootable, and supports Windows 8 Secure Boot. Installing an operating system on the drive doesn't require any F6 drivers, as the controller masquerades as a standard AHCI controller and a single disk, with the subunits and their RAID 0 stripe completely abstract. This way, the drive can accept TRIM commands from the OS.

Initially, ASUS plans to launch 120 GB and 240 GB models. The 120 GB model offers sequential transfer rates of up to 765 MB/s reads with 775 MB/s writes; while the 240 GB one offers up to 830 MB/s reads, with up to 810 MB/s writes. Both drives sport a swanky EMI shield, which frankly looks more aesthetic than functional; and a backplate. ASUS will include a license to Kaspersky Antivirus 2013. It will also include software that lets you tweak the SSD to manually increase performance. Pricing information is not at hand, but we expect about $1.30-1.40/GB pricing on the 120 GB variant, and $1.10-1.20/GB on the 240 GB one.

seem slow for a RAID 0? from the ones I have setup I am getting over 1000 MB/s, maybe just different bench marking software?
Still fast and still bad ass, be a great way to get a additional RAID 0 in a system

Yeah look at this as good looks is a little disappointing since OCZ REVODRIVE 3 achieves better end speed. Whichever is good for recovery 4 PCI-e slot on the last series of ROG motherboards, but not for all, because the mixed selection SLI configurations that we wish to implemented. Tests will show its real value. ASUS also wants a piece of cake SSD production as is currently one of the most profitable products.

I wish we got some versions not based on sandforce controllers, still interested as i am out of sata ports on my X58 setup. Might be a good drive for recording raw 1080p video while playing games unless sandforce doesn't handle it that well.

Yeah look at this as good looks is a little disappointing since OCZ REVODRIVE 3 achieves better end speed. Whichever is good for recovery 4 PCI-e slot on the last series of ROG motherboards, but not for all, because the mixed selection SLI configurations that we wish to implemented. Tests will show its real value. ASUS also wants a piece of cake SSD production as is currently one of the most profitable producs.

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Revo 2 almost hit that speed but remember the price of this drive. It is priced right with perf/price ratio.

Eh, I dismissed the Revodrives because of the extra heat they'd contribute for what they are. This will probably be very similar to them. Although... I do have a sole hard drive that I need to retire soon. With the Crucial 1tb(close enough) SSD dropping more will follow so it would do wonders for my system.

Revo 2 almost hit that speed but remember the price of this drive. It is priced right with perf/price ratio.

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I can only say that this is REVODRIVE 2 is outdated product price REVODRIVE 3 has dropped dramatically since the marketplace and is a little outdated and there VECTOR PCI-E version which certainly justify the purchase price depending on the speed of 4K data size. Direct link to processor, the main advantage of these solutions. So what I'm talking amateur to someone who might know this because I often find on your reviews . Revo 2 is an old sheet to me , not fast enough .for some it is fast enough and it is important only that ASUS writes on it.